NDMC News Archive

NDMC News Display

Research explores ag advisers' ability to communicate climate info

Feb 27, 2015

A team of researchers led by the NDMC's Tonya Haigh has determined that relatively little is known about the readiness of different types of agricultural advisers to use weather and climate information to help their clients manage risk under increasing climate uncertainty. Read more

January 2015 Drought and Impact Summary

Feb 10, 2015

Drought changed little in January 2015, remaining entrenched over the West Coast and southern Plains, with lesser intensities of drought across parts of the Southwest and Pacific Northwest. Smaller patches of drought were emerging in and around northeast Arkansas and in the Dakotas and Minnesota. Total drought coverage was comparatively low, less than 30 percent of the contiguous 48 states. Impacts continued to mount in California and Texas, where years of drought have left reservoirs depleted. Read the full January 2015 Drought and Impact Summary.

Drought lingers in West and southern Plains but major precipitation headed for Northern California

Feb 5, 2015

January featured very warm weather in the West, dramatic temperature fluctuations on the Great Plains, and cold conditions in the Northeast. California experienced not only warm weather, but also had near-record January dryness, following a wet December. Dramatic change is on the way for northern California, which has been mostly dry for the last six weeks. During the next five days, a barrage of Pacific storms will result in heavy precipitation and possible flooding in the Pacific Northwest, the northern Rockies, and northern California. However, warmth accompanying the storminess will continue to limit snowfall in key watershed areas, including the Cascades and Sierra Nevada. In northern California, where five-day totals could reach 4 to 12 inches (with isolated amounts near 18 inches), the bulk of the precipitation will fall in two major surges on Feb. 6-7 and 8-9.

NASA chose researchers associated with the National Drought Mitigation Center and the U.S. Drought Monitor to be early adopters of the soil moisture data from a new satellite mission, which is slated to launch on Jan. 29. The NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission is expected to provide far better data about soil moisture information than anything that has been available to this point. Soil moisture, necessary for crops and other plants to grow, is a key indicator of agricultural drought.